Nasum
Inhale/Exhale

THE REVIEW

Not everyone dies at 30. That's how long Mieszko Talarczyk's life lasted, cut short in December 2004 by the killer waves of a tragedy everyone knows by now. A short and intense life, like the songs of his band. Short, intense. Nothing more, and that was enough. And with him, the real Nasum died. It would be pointless for me to wait for a new album from one of the most promising bands of the grindcore scene (assuming they don't break up) knowing from the start that he won't be there to wield his guitar to play his songs.

So all I can do is delve into the past; after listening to "Helvete" and "Shift" to the extreme, almost as a tribute, I can't help but review "Inhale/Exhale", given to me by two dear friends for my 19th birthday. The first, magnificent album. This one, together with the subsequent "Human 2.0", is the album of pre-maturity. The masterpiece was yet to come, true, but when Nasum didn't yet have a complete and stable lineup, composed of the two creative minds Mieszko Talarczyk and Anders Jakobson, the drummer with iron arms, they brought forth a work that is the fundamental premise for the new grindcore, which comes to save one of the most extreme and fast musical genres that seemed buried under debris in the memory of its listeners. And Nasum give everything, they give themselves to the listeners. It is undoubtedly their most extreme album, where speed is everything, where in just 45 minutes of music they pack 38 (!), I say 38, and I emphasize "38" songs that rarely exceed one and a half minutes. It's like a declaration of themselves, just a little, a few words, even in Swedish, spewed into the minds of those who listen, their thought, their protest.

An engaged band, sure, but not just politically. Thus the themes range from human hypocrisy ("I See Lies") to bitter disappointment ("Disappointed"), from the stagnation of reality ("No Sign Of Improvement") to the illusion that blinds ("The Masked Face"), from the drabness of existence ("Grey") to the system's failure ("The System Has Failed Again"), from the unscrupulous power of science ("When Science Fails") to the precariousness of human life ("Inhale/Exhale"). Until the concluding "Can De Lach", the longest track of the album (3 minutes) where the roar of the guitars seems to get lost in a dizzying atmosphere. Words told over a grinding drum carpet and killer guitars, short and concise, straight to the point, sincere, without frills, without hypocrisy. Lethal riffs, spat out, thrown like hellish shards.

This isn't common grindcore: it's about careful and reasoned sound construction, precise guitar structure like a surgeon's hands, music thought out first and played later, lost in a chaos that is the same as life. They were to become (or already are) the greatest heirs of Napalm Death, it's indisputable. And listening to this album again, this very album, it seems like destiny that Mieszko was meant to die at this age. Short, intense. You will live forever in the hearts of those who loved your music, your songs. You met the end that befits the greats, Mieszko, as did Chuck, Quorthon, Kurt. Rest now.